by Stockwatch Business Reporter
New York spot gold moved higher on Friday, adding $16.90 to $1,974.10. The TSX-V leapt 15.5 points to 721.24 while the TSX gold index added 11.02 points to 397.68. Newmont Corp. (NGT) rose $4.58 to $92.75 on 285,000 shares and Pan American Silver Corp. (PAAS) rose $2.27 to $50.05 on 1.19 million shares.
Scott Perry's Centerra Gold Inc. (CG) added 95 cents to $16.80 on 1.94 million shares on word that it is declaring a five-cent quarterly dividend, up a penny from its previous four-cent rate. Mr. Perry, president and chief executive officer, says that the increase is the result of strong performance and the surging price of gold.
Tony Makuch's Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. (KL) jumped $4.82 to $73.15 on 2.39 million shares on word of some significant bonanza-grade assays from the Swan zone at its Fosterville gold mine in Victoria, Australia. The assays included hits of up to 976 grams of gold per tonne over a true width of seven metres and 933 grams per tonne over 5.8 metres. These were "higher than expected grades" from infill drilling, the company said, adding that the results "highlight potential to add ounces to existing mineral reserves."
Kirkland Lake also has new assays from Robin's Hill, and while they were less impressive, they did include hits of up to 68.1 grams of gold per tonne over a true width of 3.2 metres. Still, results from a new area near the Curie fault garnered much of the Robin's Hill attention, with up to 30.8 grams per tonne over 2.9 metres reported. High grade gold encounters were also noted in the Cygnet and Harrier targets, with 13.6 grams per tonne over 5.9 metres at Cygnet and 20.9 grams per tonne over 5.5 metres at Harrier.
Mr. Makuch, president and CEO, was certainly not at a loss for words with the latest assays. He cheered the continuing Fosterville program as demonstrating the significant size and scale of the mineralized structures, all of which have the "potential to host additional Swan or Swan-like zones." As Swan, he says the infill drilling confirms that the area where the Swan fault and the Swan footwall splay intersect "contains more gold than currently modelled."
Mr. Makuch also found words, and plenty of them, to enthuse about the lesser areas. At Robin's Hill, "exploration activities are progressing well," he notes, with recent results significantly expanding the size of the mineralized system and showing the potential for continued resource and reserve growth. Mr. Makuch then found even more words to say much the same thing about Cygnet and Harrier, where exploration potential is "substantial," leaving him increasingly confident that the resource will increase with further drilling.
Fosterville is a high-grade mine, with a reserve of three million tonnes averaging 21.8 grams of gold per tonne, or 2.1 million ounces. (It had been larger, but 627,000 ounces have already been mined.) There is plenty more gold available, although at lower grades. Kirkland Lake reports another 12.3 million tonnes measured and indicated at 5.3 grams per tonne, or 2.1 million ounces, plus 8.45 million tonnes inferred at 6.4 grams per tonne, or 1.7 million ounces. At Robin's Hill, the numbers are lower, with a 1.24-million-tonne reserve averaging 5.5 grams per tonne, or 218,000 ounces. Another 770,000 ounces are listed as a resource, at comparable grades.
Peter Tallman's Klondike Gold Corp. (KG), up one cent to 32 cents on 254,000 shares, has received assays of up to 5.82 grams of gold per tonne over five metres at Lone Star, in west-central Yukon. The assays are from a 13-hole first phase of drilling that targeted an area 125 metres long and 75 metres wide at the western end of the three-kilometre-long Lone Star zone traversing the Bonanza fault.
Mr. Tallman, president and CEO, applauded the results of the 2020 drilling, noting that they "continue to solidify the company's guiding geologic theory of gold mineralization in the Klondike." He then resorted to the guiding promotional strategy of cheering the grade and consistency of drill results, which, while consistent, were consistently on the low side. The best subinterval did return 25.92 grams per tonne, but over just one metre, and it rendered the other four metres of the one noteworthy hit to be otherwise mediocre.
There were more substantial hits, some topping 40 metres thick, but the grades were low, with a 42.2-metre intersection averaging 0.69 gram of gold per tonne. (There were two more substantial encounters noted in the news, but both were old hits: One returned 2.41 grams of gold per tonne over 41.2 metres in a 2017 test, the other managed 2.37 grams per tonne over 37 metres in a 2016 hole.) No matter: Mr. Tallman has seen enough that he plans to "move away from exploration and towards resource development."